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Monday, April 4, 2011

Regardless of the winner, it’s going to be a great comeback story

No if the TV ratings back this up that’s another issue, but the storyline itself has all the intrigue, fodder, and fuel for CBS to hype this a classic and have already stated that if the Bulldogs win it would trump the 85’ Villanova upset over Patrick Ewing and Hoya Paranoia. I wouldn’t go that far but to get back to TWO consecutive NCAA Finals has been reserved in history for teams with 3 or perhaps 4 NBA players in their starting lineup. This team has done it with one or perhaps two, with one of them already leaving at the end of last year as Gordon Hayward moved on to become a first rounder. Because of that they will never go down as one of the best teams by the modern day definition of a “collection of athletes” but certainly should in the literal sense of “a number of persons forming one of the sides in an athletic contest” and one of the best stories. As Bill Self, Urban Meyer, and others from small schools that had the light come on and leave for greener pastures, I’m tuning into the Butler story just to see how long Bradley Stevens can keep the faith. And there that is that beast from the Big East that saved the reputation of the conference as ten of the record eleven representatives fell by the waist side, most in the early rounds, and had the sports nation wondering what all the hype was about. Well, that same conference that started with just over 16% of the tournament field now as 50% and maybe 100% in a few hours. The Huskies finished ninth in the conference and arguably needed to win a couple of games in conference tournament to get their party invite. They did more than that by winning five games in five days, mostly over ranked opponents and then five more to get to this point. If they were going to run out of gas they’d have done it by now and Walker’s stock has risen so much it has made people rethink their valuations of the internet “bubble”. But as a fan of the game and one that still thinks this is the greatest event in sports, I want to see a legendary finish so both these schools get their just due in NCAA Tourney history, and hey, a 80% shooting night and last second inbound to run out the clock sounds good to me.

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